Judith and Holofernes (Mantegna)

Judith and Holofernes

Artist	Andrea Mantegna
Year	c1495
Type	Tempera with gold and silver on panel
Dimensions	30.6 cm × 19.7 cm (12.0 in × 7.8 in)
Location	National Gallery of Art, Washington

Judith and Holofernes is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna, painted about 1495, depicting the common subject in art of Judith beheading Holofernes.

History

The painting has been dated through comparison with similar grisaille panels with Old Testament subjects, produced by Mantegna around 1495 and 1500.

The work was perhaps included in the Gonzaga collection acquired by Charles I of England in 1628. Given to William Herbert, 6th Earl of Pembroke, it was inherited by his heirs until it was sold in London in 1917. After a series of different owners, it was acquired in New York by Joseph E. Widener in 1923. In 1942 it was donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Description

The panel has brilliant and variegated colors, resembling a miniature. Judith is portrayed standing under the pink tent of Holofernes (whose foot can be seen on the right) immediately after beheading him, still holding the blade. She is dropping the head into a sack held by a maid.

The ground, painted in diagonal perspective, is composed of stone and earth slabs, some of which are out of position.

Sources

La Grande Storia dell'Arte - Il Quattrocento, Il Sole 24 Ore, 2005
Kleiner, Frank S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 13th edition, 2008
Manca, Joseph. Andrea Mantegna and the Italian Renaissance, 2006

External links

Page at the Museum's website

Works by Andrea Mantegna

Ovetari Chapel (1448–1457)
The Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1450–1451)
St. Jerome in the Wilderness (c. 1451)
San Luca Altarpiece (1453)
St. James Led to His Execution (c. 1455)
Presentation at the Temple (c. 1455)
Crucifixion (1459)
Agony in the Garden (c. 1459)
Portrait of Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan (c. 1459–1460)
St. Bernardino of Siena between Two Angels (1460)
Death of the Virgin (c. 1461)
Portrait of a Man (c. 1460)
Portrait of Francesco Gonzaga (c. 1461)
Madonna with Sleeping Child (c. 1470)
St. George (c. 1460)
San Zeno Altarpiece (1460)
St. Sebastian (of Vienna) (c. 1459)
Adoration of the Magi (1462)
The Ascension (1462)
The Circumcision (1464)
Portrait of Carlo de' Medici (c. 1459–1466)
St. Sebastian (of the Louvre) (c. 1480)
The Madonna of the Cherubim (c. 1485)
Triumphs of Caesar (c. 1486)
Christ as the Suffering Redeemer (c. 1488–1500)
Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1490)
Madonna of the Quarry (1490)
St. Sebastian (of Venice) (1490)
Madonna della Vittoria (1496)
Judith and Holofernes (1495)
Trivulzio Madonna (1497)
Parnassus (Mars and Venus) (1497)
Holy Family (c. 1500)
Triumph of the Virtues (c. 1502)

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